Students welcome break on loan repayments

Graduating Nova Scotia students using the Repayment Assistance Plan won’t have to start repaying their loans until they’re earning at least $25,000 annually effective Nov. 1. Shown here is the campus of Dalhousie University. (Staff)

Dal student James Healey thinks his home province of Saskatchewan ought to be more forgiving on loans.

That’s because graduating Nova Scotia students using the Repayment Assistance Plan won’t have to start repaying their loans until they’re earning at least $25,000 annually, effective Nov. 1. The new repayment cap was announced Tuesday by Labour and Advanced Education Minister Kelly Regan.

“It certainly seems like it would be only beneficial to me,” said Healey when approached by the Chronicle Herald on University Avenue.

But Healey, a fifth-year philosophy student, is receiving his loans from Saskatchewan, where no such debt relief exists, although federal and provincial grants are available in both his home province and Nova Scotia.

“It would certainly give a student the opportunity to get on their feet before they have to start paying. It might actually help them get a better job. If you’re heavily financially burdened you don’t really have the opportunity to expand your mind,” said Healey.

He said that students graduating in debt were often forced to take minimum-wage jobs to make ends meet and slowly gain promotions in what he called a “temporary career.”

But Healey still felt he made the right choice by coming to Dalhousie. He’s a dual citizen of Canada and the United States, who lived for a time in Vermont, but a typical university degree south of the border would put him back by up to $50,000 per year.

By contrast, $50,000 in Canada would cover his entire university career.

“It was an obvious choice to come to Canada,” said Healey.

Nova Scotia’s Repayment Assistance Plan is available to borrowers who are having difficulty managing their monthly payments, by calculating an affordable payment amount based on their income and family size.

“Every dollar counts when graduates are beginning their careers,” said Regan in a media release Tuesday. “We hope this change provides some relief to young people as they build their lives in Nova Scotia.”

The government says this is one of several steps it has taken to make post-secondary education more affordable for Nova Scotian students. Provincial student loans are interest-free and eligible students can get up to $30,000 in non-repayable financial support over a four-year program.

Changes to the provincial Repayment Assistance Plan align with those made by the federal government.

“This change to the Repayment Assistance Plan will be important to students as they move out of post-secondary education and on to their next steps,” said Students Nova Scotia executive director Sophie Helpard in a release Tuesday.

“We are happy to hear that Nova Scotia is being proactive in giving more financial assistance to students who need it most.”